They want to build their own em­pire: Modi’s dig at oppn

But his party, BJP, want to em­power peo­ple, says Prime Min­is­ter

CHEN­NAI: Prime Min­is­ter Naren­dra Modi on Sun­day de­rided op­po­si­tion ef­forts to cob­ble up a grand al­liance against the BJP and pitched for his party's re-elec­tion in the com­ing par­lia­men­tary elec­tion, say­ing these "op­por­tunis­tic" al­liance and "dy­nas­tic" par­ties "want to build their own em­pire while we want to em­power peo­ple".

Dur­ing an in­ter­ac­tion with booth-level BJP work­ers from five par­lia­men­tary con­stituen­cies in Tamil Nadu via video-con­fer­ence, Modi said, "Un­like other par­ties, we are not in pol­i­tics for di­vide and rule or build­ing vote banks. We are here to serve the coun­try in ev­ery pos­si­ble way."

"On one hand we have our devel­op­ment agenda and on the other, there are op­por­tunis­tic al­liance and dy­nas­tic par­ties. This elec­tion is an op­por­tu­nity for us to take the agenda of devel­op­ment to new heights. On one hand we have our devel­op­ment agenda and the vi­sion of sabka saath sabka vikas. On the other hand, there are op­por­tunis­tic al­liance and dy­nasty par­ties," he said.

Such par­ties, the prime min­is­ter charged, "want to build their own em­pire while we want to em­power peo­ple".

Modi's com­ments came a day af­ter the Sa­ma­jwadi Party and the Bahu­jan Sa­maj Party an­nounced their al­liance for the com­ing Lok Sabha polls in Ut­tar Pradesh in a bid to counter the saf­fron party.

Billing his party as one that recog­nised the cul­tural di­ver­sity of the coun­try, he also pat­ted his party work­ers and ex­uded con­fi­dence they will once again en­sure its vic­tory in the com­ing elec­tions.

A BJP worker is driven not by any self-in­ter­est but na­tional in­ter­est, he said, adding only in the saf­fron party can a per­son born in so­cially back­ward and eco­nom­i­cally poor fam­ily think of reach­ing the top.

"In the BJP one only needs hardwork, not big wal­lets, high birth or loy­alty to one fam­ily.

We are proud that a party with two MPS (to start off with) is rul­ing so many states and is run­ning the gov­ern­ment at the Cen­tre," Modi said.

He said that the BJP'S suc­cess has "nat­u­rally an­gered so many peo­ple who have done noth­ing but done neg­a­tive pol­i­tics," and have been abus­ing both the party and him­self, the prime min­is­ter said.

"But they should not un­der- es­ti­mate the peo­ple of In­dia. Our friends in the op­po­si­tion are any­way a con­fused lot. They leave no op­por­tu­nity to say Modi is bad, gov­ern­ment is not work­ing, peo­ple dis­like the BJP .... the first thing that they do is make op­por­tunist al­liance with par­ties they dis­liked till re­cently and still do per­haps," he said, with­out nam­ing any­one.

"If Modi is so bad, gov­ern­ment is not work­ing and if the peo­ple dis­like the BJP then why build these al­liance. Should you not be con­fi­dent about your­self. The truth is they know it is a work­ing gov­ern­ment, that the poor of In­dia, the youth of In­dia, the farm­ers of In­dia and the women of In­dia have a strong bond with the BJP."

"Hence, for their own ex­is­tence they are mak­ing short-term al­liance," he said dur­ing the in­ter­ac­tion with party work­ers from May­i­laduthu­rai, Si­va­ganga, Per­am­balur, Virud­hu­na­gar and Theni par­lia­men­tary con­stituen­cies as part of his 'Mera Booth, Sabse Maz­boot' (My booth is the strong­est) ini­tia­tive.

Tak­ing a dig at the pre­vi­ous UPA gov­ern­ment, he said it had built only 25 lakh houses in its last five years un­der a hous­ing for poor scheme, whereas the present gov­ern­ment has con­structed 1.25 crore houses in four years.

"In the pre­vi­ous gov­ern­ment, for them the name of schemes was im­por­tant, not their func­tion­ing...,” he said.